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Burman: How Chen Guangcheng blindsided U.S. and China

The remarkable drama this week of China's blind &ldquo;barefoot lawyer,&rdquo; as the gutsy Chen Guangcheng is known, was a unique reminder of how little absolute control the Chinese and American governments have over their increasingly tense and unpredictable relationship. Chen's stirring escape to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing was an incident neither government wanted, and both feared. And its implications may one day come to haunt both sides.

A handout photo from U.S. Embassy Beijing Press office shows blind activist Chen Guangcheng (2nd L) being accompanied by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell (front R) and U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke (C), in Beijing, May 2. (REUTERS)

The remarkable drama this week of China's blind “barefoot lawyer,” as the gutsy Chen Guangcheng is known, was a unique reminder of how little absolute control the Chinese and American governments have over their increasingly tense and unpredictable relationship. Chen's stirring escape to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing was an incident neither government wanted, and both feared. And its implications may one day come to haunt both sides.

After hiding out for six days in the American Embassy, the self-taught legal activist was taken by the U.S. ambassador to a Beijing hospital to be reunited with his wife and two young children. Days of negotiations between Chinese and U.S. diplomats ended with apparent Chinese assurances that Chen can live a normal life with his family.

The 40-year-old dissident, who has been blind since infancy from an untreated fever, has campaigned for years against the severe enforcement of the government's one-child policy in eastern China. He has charged that local officials have forced thousands of people to have abortions or undergo sterilization. These same local officials have retaliated by imprisoning him and harassing his wife and young children. In a video posted on the Internet last week, Chen talked of being subjected to “brutal” treatment, including an incident when “more than a dozen men assaulted my wife” and “violently assaulted me.”

Chen's journey from his rural village to the safety of the American Embassy in Beijing was the stuff of high drama. He first attempted to escape by building a tunnel, but was discovered by guards. Then the blind activist scrambled over the wall built around his home and travelled across the countryside in the direction of Beijing. Although helped by friends, he fell as many as 200 times and injured his leg crossing a river before finally arriving at the embassy.

In blunt diplomatic and political terms, the incident happened at the worst possible time for both countries. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for high-level economic and security talks that nearly derailed. China was particularly embarrassed by the incident coming so soon after the dramatic dismissal of Bo Xilai, a member of China's Politburo. The Bo scandal sparked the biggest upheaval in China's top leadership since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. And, in March, outgoing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned conservative officials that China could face another “Cultural Revolution” unless it undertakes urgent political reforms.

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But this doesn't mean there is any lack of self-confidence on the part of China in its competition with the United States. This was clear in a rare glimpse of China's strategic view provided in April by influential analyst Wang Jisi, who is very close to the Communist party and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Wang is co-author with U.S. foreign affairs specialist Kenneth Lieberthal of a widely circulated report titled “Addressing U.S.-China Strategic Distrust” which was published by the Brookings Institution and the Institute for International and Strategic Studies at Peking University. The authors say that the level of strategic distrust between the two countries has become so corrosive that it risks becoming “openly antagonistic.”

Wang himself wrote that, in China, the U.S. is no longer seen as “awesome (or) trustworthy, and its example to the world and admonitions to China should therefore be much discounted.” He wrote the U.S. is regarded as a declining power “on the wrong side of history,” adding: “It is now a question of how many years, rather than how many decades, before China replaces the United States as the largest economy in the world.”

It is in this environment of bitter competition that incidents such as Chen's escape can assume long-term importance. Will this incident encourage others in China to seek American help in their struggle against the government? Will this possibility and the appeal of Chen's story be used by American political and media interests to drive a wedge between the two countries?

Both governments undoubtedly hope that the story of Chen Guangcheng will soon be forgotten. But the colossal and historic forces that seem in play over which nation ultimately rules the 21st century may no longer allow that.

Tony Burman, former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News, teaches journalism at Ryerson University. tony.burman@gmail.com

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